ABSTRACT
It might be thought that, since Hegel has already rejected the prepositional form as a vehicle for the truth about infinite entities, there can be little to say about proof or argument. For, on the customary view, the premises and conclusion of a proof or argument are propositions. This is so, and the orthodox notion of a proof has to undergo a radical transformation before Hegel can accept its application to infinite objects. He devoted a course of lectures,1 as well as scattered passages in his other works, to effecting this transformation. Proofs are relevant, of course, to all the infinite, as well as to finite objects. His predecessors had attempted to prove, for example, that the soul is immortal, that the world is infinite and that God exists. Most of Hegel’s remarks about proof, however, concern directly only the proofs of God’s existence, and this chapter will concentrate on his discussion of these. These remarks are nevertheless of relevance to our knowledge of any infinite entity, and they lead us into the heart of Hegel’s system.
